Nonprofits have a large stake in the health care debate, with many worried about how they’re going to continue insuring their nearly 13 million-strong workforce amid rising costs and an uncertain future, a new Johns Hopkins University (JHU) survey finds.
In Health Care and Nonprofits: The Hidden Dimension of America’s Health Care Crisis, JHU and a host of other participating organizations, report on a survey of human services organizations, including children- and youth-serving groups, that gauged how nonprofits and employees are being affected by rising health insurance costs.
Nonprofits tend to offer competitive health benefits to workers to offset their normally low pay scale; overall, 80 percent of those surveyed offered insurance to employees, a figure that rose to 90 percent among children and family services organizations. But virtually all nonprofit leaders surveyed – 98 percent – said they were concerned about their ability to sustain coverage in the face of higher benefit costs, declining revenue and increased demand, and 59 percent ranked health care costs as one of their organization’s top challenges.
The survey found that concerns aren’t just financial – many organizations also fret about their ability to retain and attract quality staff and sustain morale.
The 15-page report is online.
